Generally, once a semiconductor wafer has gone through the front end of line and back end of line processing to form semiconductor devices and their respective connections, dies singulated from the semiconductor wafer or the semiconductor wafer itself is typically coated with a resin in order to further protect the dies from physical and environmental damage.
In some solutions, the resin is applied using compression molding. In these solutions, a package including a die, the die alone, or the semiconductor wafer is inserted into a molding chamber. The resin is dispensed on the device generally without a particular shape. Components of the chamber are then brought together to compress the molding around the device thereby encapsulating the device with the compound.
In some instances, the molding compound must be cured to harden the compound and make the compound generally impervious to the exterior environment. During typical curing processes, stresses can be induced within the device structure, which may lead to device warpage or failure. Hence, the efficiency and yield of the molding process can be adversely affected.